So, for every type of content you create (be that blogs, white papers, guides, emails, infographics, videos or some other wonderful piece) you need a strong distribution plan in place to support it.

Before you start planning the nitty-gritty of when and where you’re going to do things, you should be aware of the distribution channels open to you. That’s where we step in.

Here’s a quick summary of why proper distribution is so important and the channels you can use. Enjoy!

Why is it important to distribute your content properly?

Some think it’s enough to create a great piece of content, plonk it on their site and leave it. They’re wrong!

The “build it and they will come” approach doesn’t really work for content marketing. Yes, you’ll probably get some organic traffic, but without a proper multi-channel distribution strategy, your content will never reach its full potential.

Proper distribution is more important than ever before because we’re in a state of ‘content shock’; there’s just too much content for our readers to consume. Therefore, you need to target them and distribute your content to them directly to stand a chance of getting noticed.

Distributing your content has another bonus; you won’t need to produce as much content! This may sound like blasphemy coming from a copywriting agency but bear with us.

If you maximise the reach of each piece through clever targeting and distribution, it will be much more effective than content that just sits there on your site. You’ll see the same (or better) results than before, so this might mean you have time to focus your efforts elsewhere and perhaps even improve the quality of your content.

We suggest that you apply the 80/20 rule here. Spend 80% of your time promoting your content and 20% creating it. This may seem counter-intuitive, but it works!

Some tips before you start to distribute your content

Think about your content distribution network (meaning the people who care about what you have to say). The relationships you have with these followers will determine how ‘far’ your content can go.

If you improve your relationships with this group, they’re more likely to share your content with their followers and you’ll reach even more people.

Source the original blog that’s on your site at the bottom as a call to action, and those who liked your post will start funnelling through.

Posting on republishing hubs can boost both traffic and awareness – hooray!

3. Pay to promote your content

There are lots of pay-to-promote options out there, and all are worth looking into.

Our favourite is probably Facebook ads. They’re a great way to distribute your content to both your existing and new customers. They also pretty much guarantee that more people will look at your content.

You can select the different demographics you want to target, so you can be sure that your content is only reaching people who are likely to be interested in what you have to say. It removes most of the guesswork from distribution, so is well worth a go!

4. Guest posting

Publish your content on someone else’s site, and you’ll get to reap many benefits.

Namely, you’ll have access to their audience; so, if you pick the right partner, this could really give your brand a boost.

Make sure you choose to guest post on a publisher’s site that has similar interests to your own and a comparable audience. That way you can be pretty sure that their audience will be interested in what you have to say.

And, if you guest post on a bigger brand’s site, you will benefit from the association with that brand. This is in addition to all the social media legwork they’ll put in on your behalf. They’ll share your content online to their (huge) follower base and direct them back to you. Result!

So that’s it – a quick run-through of how to distribute your content. Pick the channels that work for you and start coming up with a distribution plan today!